New Detective fiction

Featured New Titles

16th March 2007

Shark Music
Carol O'Connell (Hutchinson 2007 trade paperback - previously published as Find Me in hardback in the USA late 2006 )
$37.00
Arty Bees tag # 37191

'Love is the death of me,' reads the handwritten note. The gunshot victim was found in Detective Sergeant Kathy Mallory's apartment. It is not clear at first if it was homicide or suicide. And Mallory has disappeared...But by a trace of credit card activity, Mallory's faithful partner, Riker, knows that she filled her gas tank in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. She is leaving a trail. Eight hundred miles from New York, another corpse has been found - a man, laid out on the tarmac, pointing towards Route 66.

Over the years a number of bodies have been discovered along this famous road - all little girls, aged between five and seven. And now a silent caravan of cars, dozens of them, drives down that road, each passenger bearing a photograph, but none of them the same. They are the parents of missing children, some recently disappeared, some gone a decade or more-all brought together by word that childrens' grave sites are being discovered along the Mother Road.

Kathy Mallory drives with them. The child she seeks, though, is not like the others'. It is herself – the feral child adopted off the streets, her father a blank, her mother dead and full of mysteries. During the next few extraordinary days, Mallory will find herself hunting a killer like none she has ever known, and will undergo a series of revelations not only of stunning intensity- but stunning effect.

Shark Music is Carol O'Connell's finest achievement a thrilling, complex and emotional novel which explores the hopes and despairs of lost parents and lost children, and the 9th and final installment in the Kathy Mallory series.

For those of you who haven't come across this heroine before, New York cop Kathy Mallory is a little damaged, possible even a sociopath according to her psych evaluation... but that what makes her a good detective.
Mallory's Oracle is the first in the series, starting from the death of her adopted father, (the chief of Detectives who took the runaway street urchin home to his wife) and the character has come a long way since in the last eight novels, which have always been gripping, often devestating, and with many an oddly compelling and blackly humourous moment.

And Mallory is a compelling character. As brilliant as she is suspicious and amoral - far superior in my opinion to Temperance Brennan in the Reich novels or the constant sadistic torture that equates to character developement in the last half-dozen Patricia Cornwell's novels.

Check out the Kathleen Mallory Novels
1. Mallory's Oracle (1994)
2. The Man Who Lied to Women (1995)
aka The Man Who Cast Two Shadows
3. Killing Critics (1996)
4. Flight of the Stone Angel (1997)
aka Stone Angel
5. Shell Game (1999)
6. Crime School (2002)
7. The Jury Must Die (2003)
aka Dead Famous
8. Winter House (2004)
9. Find Me (2006)
aka Shark Music

The Judas Child (1998)

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30th August 2006

The Bookwoman's Last Fling
By John Dunning, (Scribner, 2006), $37
Arty Bees book # 36632

This is the fifth book in the series. These books explain the ins and out of the second hand book trade in a clear and concise way that lacks the confusion of Black Books — which is ALL LIES. The first book shows why first editions are collectible within the framework of a brilliant detective story. The second book does the same with rare and custom printings of books.

The stories are gritty film noir style mysteries in a modern setting, ie. they have cellphones. They are well written, fast-paced and not overly gruesome. You don't need to read them in order: each one stands alone as an enjoyable tale. After you've read one of them you'll want to continue with the rest of the series or go back to the beginning.
"Denver bookman Cliff Janeway would have liked Candice Geiger. She loved books with a true bookwoman's passion. Her collection of first-edition children's books is the best that Janeway ever hopes to see. Sadly, Janeway and Candice Geiger will never meet. She died much too young. Now, twenty years later, her books remain a testament to an extraordinary woman's remarkable vision.

"Janeway first learns about the juvenilia collection when Candice's elderly husband, H. R. Geiger, passes away and Janeway travels to their Idaho home to assess the collection. The estate can't be distributed until the books are valued, so there's pressure on Janeway to do the job quickly. But one look at the books tells Janeway something's wrong. Valuable titles are missing, replaced by cheap reprints. Other hugely valuable pieces remain. Why would a thief take one priceless book and leave an equally valuable volume on the shelf?"

19th July 2006

Guilty Pleasures,
By Laurel K Hamilton, (Jove) $22.00
Arty Bees book # 33914

Guilty Pleasures is the first in the long running and incredibly successful series of Vampire Hunter novels starring Anita Blake: Private investigator, professional zombie re-animator and a handy woman to have around when fiends come-a-biting.

Which is why we put the multi talented Ms Hamilton in both the Science Fiction and Detective Fiction sections.

Of course if you’re a vampire fan already, then you’ve probably already sunk your teeth into these books with relish* but for those of you who are feeling adventurous and think you might want to try something new, here’s a peek into Ms Hamilton’s world.
Since they were billed by my workmates as the R18 version of the Buffy novels, I was expecting a rather steamy read and was a little relieved (disappointed?) to find that this was over-hyped. In fact, compared to the completely oversexed Ms Betsy Taylor in the Undead and Unwed series, (let's face: it that woman has a very healthy libido), Anita is a bit of a prude.
The erotic overtones of the vampire lifestyle, the seedy behaviour of seedy people on the fringe of society, junkies and dealers, pimps and killers: it's just another day at the office for a good P.I. on the trail of a serial killer.

Now, this may sound a bit violent and explicit, and although there is a lot of blood and gore (well duh, we’re dealing with vamps here guys, not to mention a murderer or two), it’s not wildly more violent than many of the other detective novels on bestseller lists. And that is the main point of these books — they are detective novels first and foremost, not horror novels. They just happen to be set in a fantasy America: an America where being undead means you have the same rights as the living, and pinko bleeding-heart (mostly because they’ve been bitten) liberals campaign for vampire civil liberties. In a country where screen violence is the norm, and most people own guns, but you have to be on a cable network to say the word ‘vagina’ on TV, this bizarre state of affairs may not be such a stretch.
And the book is well written. Fast paced, it doesn’t drag, keeps you guessing right up to the end, the heroine isn’t stupid (tell me I’m not the only one who wanted to slap Tempe Brennan for being a nitwit in Kathy Reich's first book!) and it has some great lines that stick with you long after reading: “This is why I jogged, so I could run like hell when something was chasing me. Thinner thighs was not incentive enough.” Amen, Anita, I couldn’t agree more.
Check out Laurel K Hamilton at Arty Bees: we have new copies for $22, and we do also get second-hand copies fairly often.

* Well probably not relish ‘cos it’s really messy and it’s hard to read through all that mushed up onion and tomato — also we are Arty Bees strongly suggest that biting books is BAD and we can’t guarantee that we will accept the book back on exchange after it has been bitten!

28th June 2006

Twelve Sharp
Janet Evanovich, $37
(Headline Review, 2006)
Arty Bees book # 36479

"The unforgettable characters, non-stop action, high-stakes suspense, and sheer entertainment of her Stephanie Plum novels define Janet Evanovich as unique among today’s writers. This twelfth Stephanie Plum bestseller is packed full of Janet Evanovich’s trademark wit, adventure and sly comedy."
It’s out now: come in and get it. The newest Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. It only arrived yesterday so I haven’t read it yet. Feel free to come in and tell me about it. I have heard good things — the author is over that not-so-good patch. What else is there to say? If you haven’t read this series you should; if you have read it you know it all.
By the way, we've just got the previous one, Eleven on Top, in the standard B-format paperback. Any guesses on what the next one will be called? Unlucky Thirteen?

6th June 2006

Muletrain to Maggody
By Joan Hess, $22
Arty Bees book # 35230

“Hess aims and fires her comic Gatling gun with restless abandon and great glee.” Booklist (Starred Review)

This is neither a romance nor a hardcore detective book: it has the pleasant aspects of both. The fun and lifelike characters solve crimes, develop relationships, and generally have a good time. This book may seem a bit light, but it is not spineless.

Against a background of overly authentic battle re-enactors, run-away foster children, returning ex-lovers, and lost Civil War gold, Police Chief Arly Hanks must catch a killer so that the people of Maggody can live in peace.

31st May 2006

St. Dale
By Sharyn McCrumb, $24
Arty Bees book # 36326

"While on a road trip dedicated to the memory of Dale Earnhardt with her sister and an odd assortment of friends and family, Bekasu Holifield unexpectedly finds her life changed by her eccentric traveling companions."

A happy book. A modern reworking of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales where the characters share their stories on a pilgrimage in honour of a recently dead saint. But the saint is no medieval religious icon: he's Dale Earnhardt, stock car driver and icon of the Southern psyche. A wonderful reflection on modern society and modern writing. It should be read by all those who read Cold Mountain by Frasier and liked it because it made them feel superior. This book will wipe the smug smile off the faces of those who like to look down on others.
Many of Sharyn McCrumb's other books will simply make anyone unable to smile for a couple of days: a vivid CSI meets Grimm's Fairy Tales. Imagine a detective asking "So you took your son and daughter into the forest and then what?" — while sifting through a pile of children's bones...

Other books by Sharyn McCrumb in stock at Arty Bees on Manners Street: Zombies of the Gene Pool; Ballad of Frankie Silver; Foggy Mountain Breakdown and other stories; Hangman's Beautiful Daughter; If I'd killed him when I'd met him; MacPherson's Lament: An Elizabeth MacPherson Mystery; Missing Susan; Paying the Piper; PMS Outlaws: An Elizabeth MacPherson novel; She Walks these Hills; Songcatcher: A Ballad Novel; Windsor Knot; Ghost Riders; Highland Laddie Gone; Rosewood Casket.

24th May 2006

Patterns of Murder
By Monica Ferris $35
The first three Needlecraft Mysteries: (Crewel World, Framed in Lace, A Stitch in Time.)
Arty Bees book # 35725

“Shop-owner and part-time Sleuth Betsy Devonshire has a knack for unraveling mysteries— and it’s entangled her in more than one knotty situation.”
All are very pleasant detective stories, the kind you can recommend to your grandmother. We all know that your grandmother probably wants a steamy sex scene to make her hair stand on end and gruesome violence to make it all fall out, but we do our best to ignore such things.
It is fun, light and well written. The characters seem very real, they live real lives, in real situations. There are nice people — and people who are not nice — but there are no evil serial killers. It is a type of Agatha Christie for the new millennium.
The true colours of this book are shown in that there are clues in the craft projects and in the book you get the patterns.